G. WALKER AND SON, No. 17, SOHO SQUARE, SHERWOOD AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW, AND SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, STATIONERS' COURT. 1838. THE PHILIDORIAN. No. 1. [ DECEMBER] NOTE. 1837. In accordance with that custom which invariably prefaces a new periodical by an Editorial appeal to the tender mercies of the generous, we had prepared a voluminous statement of our hopes and fears upon the present occasion. Second thoughts have changed our views, and we decline the big drum accordingly. The public is too old a bird to be caught with chaff; either literal or metaphorical. If they want a thing, they'll purchase; if not all the "soft sodder" in the world will never force a demand for the commodity. In consecrating a magazine solely to domestic games, we open up ground entirely new. We believe and trust the soil will prove fertile ;-it may turn out unhappily to be but sand. Either there is room for THE PHILIDORIAN, or we have anticipated the era, and the cause must bide its time for another generation. Be this averted!-for the sake of the kindlier feelings of man; nourished and expanded, as we hold them to be, by the free use of healthy recreation. We raise our banner in the name of PHILIDOR, whose ashes rest in England. As the veterans of the "grande armée" are wont to pile the base of Napoleon's column with flowery wreaths, so do we glory in now paying similar tribute to the fame of the illustrious dead. May our offering to the memory of Philidor be indeed twin'd of budding "immortelles." B |